Timur Rokhlin and Rocket: how a delivery service became a front for laundering €10m stolen from European pensioners

Timur Rokhlin, the former co-founder of the Ukrainian delivery service Rocket, was arrested. About this reported dou.ua with reference to the Israeli publication Posta. The businessman was detained on December 20, 2021 in Israel, when he was about to fly to Kyiv.

Germany’s arrest and demand for extradition were the result of a two-year investigation by the competent authorities of Germany and Ukraine into a major scam that affected about 400 Europeans. According to investigators, in 2017 — 2020 they invested approximately 10 million euros in financial products that do not exist. German investigators they claim, that Timur Rokhlin was at the head of the scheme, and the amounts that the scammers defrauded “investors” passed through his British company. Ukrainian law enforcement officers now they work the version that these funds were used to buy VIP cars and real estate in Ukraine.

As part of the investigation, the courts have already seized some Ukrainian assets associated with the businessman, — cars, real estate. The sanctions did not affect the Rocket delivery service. Let us recall that in 2019, Timur Rokhlin bought a controlling stake in the collective discount service Pokupon. Forbes Magazine wrote that this is what Rokhlin saved Rocket from “getting into the startup cemetery”. The 100% investor in Rocket is now Timur’s father —, Israeli citizen Igor Rokhlin. The son gave way to his father in 2020, when the prosecutor’s office of the German city of Bamberg was already conducting its investigation.

However, Rocket began to storm. Po information website Ain.ua, December 2021 — January 2022 Rocket significantly reduced its staff in Ukraine — more than 50 people. The main reason for this step was allegedly a decrease in funding from investors at the end of the year, which came as a surprise to management.

How is Timur Rokhlin connected with Rocket?

In 2019, Timur became the majority owner of the delivery service, which was then still called “Rocket”. He bought it from the largest couponer in Ukraine, Pokupon, he wrote Forbes. Minority shareholders were “Rocket” — developers Alexey Yukhimchuk and Stanislav Dmitrik (7% each). Later the ownership structure changed. In April 2020, when an investigation into fraud was already underway, and in December the assets of Igor Rokhlin were seized, p company left Timur, and founders Yukhimchuk and Dmitrik — in August of the same year. At the moment, the founder of “Rocket delivery” is listed in the registry as Tisea Fresh Food Ltd., a ultimate owner — Timur’s father — Igor Rokhlin.

To Rocket for request LIGA.net they replied that Timur Rokhlin had nothing to do with the company.

Little is known about the Rokhlins. A Forbes story in early 2021 states that Igor Rokhlin graduated from the Baku Institute of Oil and Chemistry, since 2005 — is an Israeli citizen. The media wrote about him when he was a member of the board of directors of the Romanian oil refinery RAFO Onesti, which was sold in 2006 to Russian businessman Yakov Goldovsky, who later resold it to Moldovan businessmen.

Timur Rokhlin, a citizen of Ukraine and Israel, graduated from the Rotterdam School of Management. He moved to Ukraine several years ago. Forbes notes that Timur in early 2021, in addition to Rocket, owned the BeeWorking coworking space, the BeeVentures venture fund and several IT businesses. He also owned a fleet at that time that included a Rolls-Royce Wraith worth approximately $500,000.

Why was Rokhlin detained?

In mid-November, Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova appeared on her FB page posted it photos of two cars — Lamborghini Aventador SJV and Rolls Royce Phantom with a total value of more than 1 million euros. At Boryspil airport they were loaded into the An-12 compartment before being sent to Germany. The Prosecutor General clarified that in the — photographs there is a process of transferring “evidence to the German competent authorities in the case of a large-scale international fraudulent scheme related to investing in financial products that do not exist.

Venediktova did not name the owner of the cars, she only clarified that the fraudulent scheme was organized by citizens of Ukraine, and their victims were residents of Germany, Bulgaria, Serbia and other European countries. How can you now find out from register of court decisions, these cars are registered to the Czech Beryltrans, owned by Timur Rokhlin. Senior partner of the law firm Klochkov and partners Ivan Starosta, who represented the interests of Timur Rokhlin in court, did not respond to LIGA.net’s request at the time of publication of the material.

The fact that the Ukrainian is on the list of those possibly involved in this case first became publicly known in September 2021 from an article in the publication dev.ua, which referred to materials from the court register.

Thanks to an article from the Israeli publication Posta, as well as court registry data, you can learn about the details of the high-profile case. In 2017 — 2020, the organizers of the scam created several websites and trading platforms that imitated work in the stock market: Trade Capital; Fibonetix, Nobel Trade, Forbeslab, Huludox. Pseudo-investment platforms promised clients profits from supposedly real trading on the stock market in various financial instruments, including binary options, currency, cryptocurrency, etc.

More than 100 IT specialists worked at different times on the software interface for sites that simulated transactions for the purchase and sale of assets and “growth in profits from invested funds”. “clients were helped by” and “were advised by” several “call centers” in Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia.

When investors tried to cash out their investments, scammers disguised as trading platform operators demanded that they pay a service fee and a cashing commission of — 15% of the investment amount. After payment, investors’ accounts were blocked. Thus, the participants managed to take possession of approximately 10 million euros.

According to German investigators, the scammers passed the amounts received through a number of companies with fictitious directors and owners. At the end of the chain there was the company RIJV HOLDINGS LTD, behind which, according to investigators, is Timur Rokhlin. To date, the investigation is aware of 10.8 million euros that passed through this company. Ukrainian investigators indicated that RIJV HOLDINGS LTD in 2019 became the founder of a number of companies, into which she poured about UAH 500 million.

In December 2020, the companies of Timur’s father — Igor Rokhlin were arrested in Ukraine: Spetstorg, Ukrdonbud, Buildings Empire (owns the building in Kiev in which Timur Rokhlin’s BeeWorking coworking space operates), Renome Rent (owns an office center of 11,000 sq. m). In 2021, the arrest was lifted from Spetstorg and Ukrdonbud. But at the same time they were arrests have been made for the real estate itself — several thousand square meters of commercial space in Kyiv.

The Ukrainian investigation explains the arrests by the fact that part of the money that was fraudulently obtained from the Europeans could have been used to buy assets in Ukraine. The case materials, for example, clarify that in 2018 — 2019, as the ultimate beneficiary of Ukrdonstroitelstvo (now father Igor Rokhlin), Timur Rokhlin “actually acquired the ownership rights” to a number of real estate — non-residential premises and parking spaces (at Sechevykh Streltsov St., 62), the estimated market value of which is about UAH 214 million. In the fall, investigators secured the seizure of these assets. More than 4,000 “square” more were arrested on Lomonosov Street, where Beecoworking is located. Previously, Forbes wrote with reference to Timur’s lawyers that their client’s funds and assets that appear in the investigation were obtained legally.

Sanctions against the father and son of the Rokhlins did not affect the Rocket delivery service.

What will happen to Rocket?

From December last year to January this year, Rocket experienced employee layoffs. According to the company, more than 50 people were laid off, 40% of whom were — technicians. “Due to changes in the market and decreased funding, it became necessary to change financial plans and look for additional investments”, — Rocket said. Po data ain.ua, the reduction in specialists is due to the investor of the — delivery service, Igor Rokhlin, who stopped financing, which came as a surprise to — founders Alexey Yukhimchuk and Stanislav Dmitrik (continue to work in the company).

Rocket recently began searching for external funding. “Negotiations are currently underway with potential investors, but the details will be announced by the company only after reaching agreements”, — noted in the Rocket press service. In a comment to Forbes, the company clarified: “...Such news in the information space can negatively affect communication with ” funds.

Rocket’s position in the Ukrainian market is stable, market share continues to grow, as does the number of orders and new partners, the press service says. “In 2022, we plan to improve the unit economy, delivery speed and other economic indicators of the business, although the spending plan for the first half of the year has undergone certain changes. We also do not plan to launch in new countries in the first half of the year. The priority is to consolidate positions in the markets of seven EU countries, where Rocket is already present, as well as expand the segment of delivering products from stores. At the moment, we continue to be competitive and grow in EU markets, in some of them we are growing much faster than our competitors”, — noted LIGA.net in the press service.

When asked whether the owner of — Igor Rokhlin — is considering selling the delivery service, the company answered: “We do not comment on the shareholder’s position”.

Rocket — is one of Glovo’s main competitors. In a fairly short period of — since aggressive investment (since 2019), the company has expanded beyond the Dnieper and now operates in 31 cities in Ukraine. The service has also entered foreign markets and now operates in the Netherlands, France, Portugal, Spain, Hungary and Cyprus. The company opened five “dark kitchen” (a restaurant that works only for delivery) in Ukraine and planned to further develop the chain, as well as open another “dark store” (a store without buyers), but due to the cessation of investment it is forced to put the development of these areas on pause.

One of the ex-employees told ain.ua that now a company can spend as much on self-sufficiency — as it earns for itself. For the three quarters of 2021, the company’s income amounted to UAH 153 million, and the loss of — was more than UAH 68 million, Forbes reports, citing SPARK-Interfax. For comparison, in 2020 the service’s earnings compiled UAH 157 million, and the loss is UAH 47 million.